The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 157

DECA'TUR, STEPHEN, an American naval commodore; distinguished for his feats of valour displayed in the war with Tripoli and with England (1779-1820).

DECCAN, a triangular plateau of from 2000 to 3000 ft. of elevation in the Indian peninsula, extending S. of the Vindhya Mountains; is densely peopled, and contains some of the richest soil in the globe.

DECEMBER, the twelfth month of the year, so called, i. e. tenth, by the Romans, as their year began with March.

DEC'EMVIRS, the patricians of Rome, with Consular powers, appointed in 450 B.C. to prepare a code of laws for the Republic, which, after being agreed upon, were committed first to ten, then to twelve tables, and set up in the Forum that all might read and know the law they lived under.

DECIUS, Roman emperor from 249 to 251; was a cruel persecutor of the Christians; perished in a mora.s.s fighting with the Goths, who were a constant thorn in his side all through his reign.

DECIUS MUS, the name of three Romans, father, son, and grandson, who on separate critical emergencies (340, 295, 279 B.C.) devoted themselves in sacrifice to the infernal G.o.ds in order to secure victory to the Roman arms; the name is mostly employed ironically.

DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE, the immortal work of Gibbon, of which the first volume was published in 1776.

DECRETALS, THE, a collection of laws added to the canon law of the Church of Rome, being judicial replies of the Popes to cases submitted to them from time to time for adjudication.

DEE, JOHN, an alchemist, born in London; a man of curious learning; earned the reputation of being a sorcerer; was imprisoned at one time, and mobbed at another, under this imputation; died in poverty; left 79 works, the majority of which were never printed, though still extant in MS. in the British Museum and other places of safe-keeping (1527-1608).

DEFAUCONPRET, French litterateur; translator of the novels of Sir Walter Scott and Fenimore Cooper (1767-1843).

DEFENDER OF THE FAITH, a t.i.tle conferred by Pope Leo X. in 1521 upon Henry VIII. for his defence of the Catholic faith in a treatise against Luther, and retained ever since by the sovereigns of England, though revoked by Pope Paul III. in 1535 in consequence of Henry's apostasy.

DEFFAND, MARIE, MARQUISE DU, a woman of society, famed for her wit and gallantry; corresponded with the eminent philosophes of the time, in particular Voltaire, as well as with Horace Walpole; her letters are specially brilliant, and display great shrewdness; she is characterised by Prof. Saintsbury as "the typical French lady of the eighteenth century"; she became blind in 1753, but retained her relish for society, though at length she entered a monastery, where she died (1697-1780).

DEFOE, DANIEL, author of "Robinson Crusoe," born in London; bred for the Dissenting ministry; turned to business, but took chiefly to politics; was a zealous supporter of William III.; his ironical treatise, "The Shortest Way with Dissenters" (1703), which, treated seriously, was burned by order of the House of Commons, led to his imprisonment and exposed him for three days to the pillory, amidst the cheers, however, not the jeers, of the mob; in prison wrote a "Hymn to the Pillory," and started his _Review_; on his release he was employed on political missions, and wrote a "History of the Union," which he contributed to promote. The closing years of his life were occupied mainly with literary work, and it was then, in 1719, he produced his world-famous "Robinson Crusoe"; has been described as "master of the art of forging a story and imposing it on the world for truth." "His circ.u.mstantial invention," as Stopford Brooke remarks, "combined with a style which exactly fits it by its simplicity, is the root of the charm of his great story" (1661-1731).

DEGE'RANDO, BARON, a French philanthropist and philosopher, born at Lyons, of Italian descent; wrote "History of Philosophy," long in repute as the best French work on the subject (1772-1842).

DEIANEIRA, the wife of Hercules, whose death she had been the unwitting cause of by giving him the poisoned robe which NESSUS (q. v.) had sent her as potent to preserve her husband's love; on hearing the fatal result she killed herself in remorse and despair.

DEIPHOBUS, a son of Priam and Hecuba, second in bravery to Hector; married Helen after the death of Paris, and was betrayed by her to the Greeks.

DEIR-AL-KAMAR, a town in Syria, once the capital of the Druses, on a terrace in the heart of the Lebanon Mountains.

DEISM, belief on purely rational grounds in the existence of G.o.d, and distinguished from theism as denying His providence.

DEISTS, a set of free-thinkers of various shades, who in England, in the 17th and 18th centuries, discarded revelation and the supernatural generally, and sought to found religion on a purely rational basis.

DeJAZET, VIRGINIE, a celebrated French actress, born in Paris; made her _debut_ at five years of age (1797-1875).

DEKKER, THOMAS, a dramatist, born in London; was contemporary of Ben Jonson, between whom and him, though they formerly worked together, a bitter animosity arose; wrote lyrics as well as dramas, which are light comedies, and prose as well as poetry; the most famous among his prose works, "The Gull's Hornbook," a pamphlet, in which he depicts the life of a young gallant; his pamphlets are valuable (1570-1641).

DE LA BECHE, SIR HENRY THOMAS, geologist, born in London; wrote the "Depth and Temperature of the Lake of Geneva," and published a "Manual of Geology" and the "Geological Observer"; was appointed head of the Geological Survey in England (1796-1855).

DELACROIX, EUGeNE, a French painter, born at Charenton, dep. of Seine; one of the greatest French painters of the 19th century; was the head of the French Romantic school, a brilliant colourist and a daring innovator; his very first success, "Dante crossing Acheron in Charon's Boat," forms an epoch in the history of contemporary art; besides his pictures, which were numerous, he executed decorations and produced lithographic ill.u.s.trations of "Hamlet," "Macbeth," and Goethe's "Faust"

(1799-1863).

DELAGOA BAY, an inlet in the SE. of Africa, E. of the Transvaal, subject to Portugal; stretches from 25 30' to 26 20' S.; extends 52 m.

inland, where the Transvaal frontier begins, and between which and it a railway of 52 m., constructed by an English company, extends.

DELAISTRE, a French statuary, born in Paris (1836-1891).

DELAMBRE, JEAN JOSEPH, an eminent French astronomer, born at Amiens, a pupil of Lalande; measured with Mechain the arc of the meridian between Dunkirk and Barcelona towards the establishment of the metric system; produced numerous works of great value, among others "Theoretical and Practical Astronomy" and the "History of Astronomy" (1749-1822).

DELANE, JOHN THADEUS, editor of the _Times_, born in London; studied at Oxford; after some experience as a reporter was put on the staff of the _Times_, and in 1841 became editor, a post he continued to hold for 36 years; was the inspiring and guiding spirit of the paper, but wrote none of the articles (1817-1879).

DELAROCHE, PAUL, a French historical painter and one of the greatest, born in Paris; was the head of the modern Eclectic school, so called as holding a middle place between the Cla.s.sical and Romantic schools of art; among his early works were "St. Vincent de Paul preaching before Louis XIII." and "Joan of Arc before Cardinal Beaufort"; the subjects of his latest pictures are from history, English and French, such as "The Princes in the Tower" and "Cromwell contemplating the corpse of Charles I.," a great work; but the grandest monument of his art is the group of paintings with which he adorned the wall of the semicircle of the Palais des Beaux Arts in Paris, which he completed in 1841 (1797-1856).

DELAUNAY, LE VICOMTE, the _nom de plume_ of Mme. Delphine, under which she published her "Parisian Letters."

DELAUNAY, LOUIS a.r.s.eNE, a great French actor, born in Paris; made his _debut_ in 1846, retired 1887.

DELAVIGNE, CASIMIR, a popular French lyric poet and dramatist, born at Havre; his verse was conventional and without originality (1793-1843).

DELAWARE (168), one of the Atlantic and original States of the American Union, as well as the smallest of them; the soil is rather poor, but porcelain clay abounds.

DELCa.s.se, THeOPHILE, French Minister of Foreign Affairs, born at Pamiers; began life as a journalist; was elected to the Chamber in 1889; became Colonial Minister; advocated colonial expansion; dealt skilfully with the Fashoda affair as Foreign Minister; _b_. 1852.